It is interesting to speculate on the age of the forge or
its predecessors at Foredown Hill and it is instructive to note that during the
time of the English Civil War (1642-1649) a law was passed enabling anybody who
provided the king with a certain number of horse shoes, nails and weapons to
build a forge on common land. Who knows whether or not an enterprising
blacksmith at Portslade took up the challenge because until 1861 Foredown Hill
remained common land.

On the other hand, Sussex was not known for its royalist
sympathies and indeed most Sussex folk were solidly on the Parliamentary side.
For example, King Charles II fleeing through Sussex in 1651 after his forces
were defeated at the Battle of Worcester, only narrowly avoided being caught
before his escape to France. But there again, Foredown Hill was remote enough
for the putative blacksmith to please himself as to his customers and by nature
of his necessary strength a blacksmith was a brawny individual well able to
take care of himself.

William Borrer

By the early 19th
century the Duke of Norfolk owned Foredown Forge and William Borrer, who died
in 1832, purchased it from the Duke and Thomas Philip Lamb. William Borrer was
a remarkable man who came from humble origins and worked his way up to become a
person of note and property.

Somers Clarke (1802-1892)
remembered old William Borrer, founder of the successful family. He wrote:

‘He was a quiet,
respectable-looking old country farmer and very unpretending in his manner. He
was formerly a retail butcher at Ditchling and … became a large contractor in
supplies of meat and forage for the Army and with the then Government – in
those days there was not the competition there is now.’

On 8 February 1788 Borrer
purchased 24 acres in Ditchling for £860 from Robert Davis of Brighthelmstone,
coal merchant, and his sister Joanna Davis.

By that time he was a man of
substance and lived in Pakyns Manor, Hurstpierpoint, having been appointed High
Sheriff of Sussex in 1801

In 1802 Borrer purchased some
land at Portslade:

A messuage called Dumbrell’s.
(Dumbrell’s is still a name familiar in Ditchling)

The Pryor’s

A small piece of wasteland
adjoining Henry Chatfield’s Mansion House in Portslade (Portslade House close
to the site where King’s School is today)

A parcel of land in Aldrington
(but this might mean south Portslade, which was also known as West Aldrington
in former times)

In 1803 the Deputy Lieutenant of
Sussex reported to the Government that in the event of an invasion, William
Borrer would be willing to provide one wagon and four horses for the use of the
Government.

It appeared that William Borrer
accumulated a large fortune of three or four hundred thousand pounds – an
enormous sum – and spent none of it on himself apart from property
acquisitions. Consequently, he was able to leave large fortunes to his three
sons William Borrer of Barrow Hill, John Borrer of Portslade, and Nathaniel
Borrer of Hurstpierpoint.

The Burgess Family

In 1841 55-year old Abel Cooms
was the blacksmith and he lived in Forge Cottage.

The Burgess family had a
remarkable record because they worked the forge from 1849 to 1956. The
blacksmiths were:

At first Foredown Forge was
rented and John Burgess was described as wheelwright, farrier and blacksmith.

The 1861 census recorded the
family living in Forge Cottage

Isfield-born John Burgess, aged
39

Wife Eliza, 40

Son Charles, 11

Son Ronald, 9

Daughter Eliza, 4

In July 1881 John Burgess
purchased the forge and the cottage.

In 1882 when a Public Inquiry was
held as to whether or not an isolation hospital should be built on Foredown
Hill, Burgess stated that had he known about such a proposal he never would
have purchased the property.

By 1882 his first wife had died
and he married a much younger woman. The 1891 census showed that John Burgess
was then aged 68 while his wife Emma was aged 41, and their son Hugh was sixteen
years old.

John Burgess died aged 92 on 16
March 1914.

Incidentally, the 1881 census
recorded a Walter Burgess, blacksmith, who lodged at Robin’s Row. By 1891
Lewes-born Walter Burgess, aged 39, lived at 6 Belgrave Square, Portslade with
his wife Alice, 27, and their children Arthur, 3 and two-year old Emily.

In the early 1960s a local young lad
intent on completing his newspaper round before having to go to school, used to
pass by the old forge and can clearly remember seeing the farrier working away
inside. His paper round included a trek up to Foredown Hospital and New Barn Farm.

In 1989 the forge and Forge
Cottage were on sale through Parsons, Son & Basley for £69,000.

In March 1990 blacksmith Arthur
White wanted to take over Foredown Forge and use it for its original purpose.
He lived in Poplar Avenue, Hove but his workshop was in Chapel Mews, Hove. He
had to leave there because it was being redeveloped and he wished to rent the
old forge with a view to buying the property at a later date.

It is sad to note that apparently
Brighton Council were well aware of his plans but went ahead and sold the
property anyway. A spokesman justified the action by saying the Council was short
of money and needed a capital receipt.

The forge and Forge Cottage went
on sale through King & Chasemore in 1990 for £125,000 – a sum well beyond
Mr White’s means.